Art Basel Sales Hold Steady as Hauser & Wirth Reports $35 Million Picasso
Art Basel in Switzerland ended with a measured sense of stability, as dealers described sales as steady rather than euphoric. Among the most closely watched transactions, Hauser & Wirth said it placed a Gerhard Richter for $20 million and a 1963 Picasso for $35 million, two figures that point to continued strength at the top end of the market.
The results arrive at a moment when many collectors and dealers have been waiting for clearer signs of recovery. While the fair did not produce the kind of overheated atmosphere that once defined the market’s peak years, the reported sales suggest that blue-chip works by artists such as German artist Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) and Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) still command serious attention when they come to market.
The fair’s closing also coincided with a separate development in New York that underscores how provenance remains central to the art trade. The New York Supreme Court ordered dealer David Nahmad to return Amedeo Modigliani’s “Seated Man With a Cane” (1918) to the grandson of Jewish dealer Oscar Stettiner within 30 days. The work has been identified as Nazi-looted, placing it within the long and often painful history of restitution claims that continue to reshape ownership questions across the market.
Taken together, the two stories reflect the art world’s current split screen: on one side, high-value sales that signal resilience; on the other, legal and ethical scrutiny that continues to follow works with contested histories. Christie’s, meanwhile, added a more unexpected note to the week by announcing a boutique wine shop at its Rockefeller Center headquarters, a small but telling sign of how major institutions are rethinking their public-facing spaces.
